Mississippi § 45-33-21 - Legislative findings and declaration of purpose.

§ 45-33-21. Legislative findings and declaration of purpose.

The Legislature finds that the danger of recidivism posed by criminal sex offenders and the protection of the public from these offenders is of paramount concern and interest to government. The Legislature further finds that law enforcement agencies’ efforts to protect their communities, conduct investigations, and quickly apprehend criminal sex offenders are impaired by the lack of information shared with the public, which lack of information may result in the failure of the criminal justice system to identify, investigate, apprehend, and prosecute criminal sex offenders. The Legislature further finds that the system of registering criminal sex offenders is a proper exercise of the state’s police power regulating present and ongoing conduct. Comprehensive registration and periodic address verification will provide law enforcement with additional information critical to preventing sexual victimization and to resolving promptly incidents involving sexual abuse and exploitation. It will allow law enforcement agencies to alert the public when necessary for the continued protection of the community. Persons found to have committed a sex offense have a reduced expectation of privacy because of the public’s interest in safety and in the effective operation of government. In balancing offenders’ due process and other rights, and the interests of public security, the Legislature finds that releasing such information about criminal sex offenders to the general public will further the primary governmental interest of protecting vulnerable populations and, in some instances the public, from potential harm. Therefore, the state’s policy is to assist local law enforcement agencies’ efforts to protect their communities by requiring criminal sex offenders to register, to record their addresses of residence, to be photographed and fingerprinted, and to authorize the release of necessary and relevant information about criminal sex offenders to the public as provided in this chapter, which may be referred to as the Mississippi Sex Offenders Registration Law.